Supriya Sule Overwhelmed with Grief in Baramati Following Ajit Pawar's Fatal Crash
NEW DELHI: In a heart-wrenching scene at the Pawar family home in Baramati, Nationalist Congress Party MP Supriya Sule broke down in tears on Wednesday as she met relatives following the tragic death of her cousin, Maharashtra deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, in a plane crash. Visuals from the residence showed Sule and her husband, Sunetra, overwhelmed with emotion while consoling family members after arriving from Delhi. Veteran politician Sharad Pawar also reached Baramati shortly after the incident.
The Tragic Incident That Shook Maharashtra Politics
Ajit Pawar, aged sixty-six and a six-time deputy chief minister widely regarded as one of Maharashtra's most influential leaders, was killed along with others when his chartered aircraft crashed near Baramati airport on Wednesday morning. The crash occurred around 8:50 AM as the plane attempted to land, according to officials. Pawar was traveling from Mumbai to Baramati, which serves as Supriya Sule's parliamentary constituency and the Pawar family's long-standing political stronghold, to address four rallies for the upcoming February 5 zilla parishad elections.
Sule cried inconsolably for her 'dada' as condolences poured in from across the political spectrum, marking a moment of profound personal loss that starkly contrasted with the family's recent political divisions.
A Family Rift Overshadowed by Tragedy
The grief in Baramati stood in sharp opposition to the political rupture witnessed within the family in 2023, when Ajit Pawar led a major split in the NCP and departed from the party founded by patriarch Sharad Pawar, aligning instead with the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance government. This division transformed Maharashtra's premier political family into a public spectacle and set the stage for a bitter contest between two NCP factions: one led by Sharad Pawar and the other by Ajit Pawar.
At the time, critics suggested the rift was linked to shifting succession dynamics within the party, highlighting the rise of Sule, Sharad Pawar's daughter and the national face of the organization, as a key factor. Despite the open political conflict, Sule repeatedly maintained that there were no personal differences with Ajit Pawar, stating, "Relationships shouldn’t come in between politics," and asserting that the contest was ideological rather than personal.
Political Tensions and Recent Thaws
However, the bitterness of the split spilled into Parliament in September 2023, when Sule, while speaking on the Nari Shakti Vandan ordinance in Lok Sabha, made a pointed remark widely interpreted as targeting her cousin. She said, "Not every house has a brother who likes the sister's well-being," in response to Union home minister Amit Shah's comments about brothers striving for sisters' welfare. Although she did not name Ajit Pawar, the statement drew immediate attention in Maharashtra's political circles, fueling speculation about underlying family tensions.
Even after this jibe, Sule later insisted her remarks were not personal and that the family remained intact. The party remained split, but in recent months, as local body polls approached, signs emerged that the two NCP factions were keeping communication channels open. In December 2025, Sule mentioned that her party was in talks with Ajit Pawar's camp and that senior leaders had engaged in discussions.
This political pragmatism was visible in recent civic contests in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, where the two NCP factions aligned tactically to avoid dividing traditional Pawar support bases.
Legacies and Future Uncertainties
For years, Supriya Sule and Ajit Pawar represented two distinct yet complementary strands of Pawar politics: Sule as the measured national voice of the party in Parliament, and Ajit Pawar as the hard-driving rural organizer and administrator who built his strength in the cooperative belt. His death now raises immediate questions about the future of his NCP faction and its relationship with Sharad Pawar's group, with political circles already buzzing about whether this tragedy might accelerate a potential merger between the two outfits.
For the Pawar family, however, the moment has collapsed politics into mourning, emphasizing personal bonds over political divisions. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced a state holiday and three days of mourning, with Ajit Pawar's last rites scheduled for Thursday.
